A column chart, also known as a bar chart, is a chart with rectangular bars of lengths usually proportional to the magnitudes or frequencies of what they represent. The bars can be horizontally or vertically oriented. The column chart is vertically oriented bars. If you want to build horizontally oriented bar charts, please go to: Bar Chart Help section.
Column charts are useful for showing data changes over a period of time or for illustrating comparisons among items. In column charts, categories are typically organized along the horizontal axis and values along the vertical axis.